Welcome to the World, Little Sprout!

One of my close friends has finally had her baby girl, who was born at home this morning. My friend's mother was there, and has posted a bit about it over on her blog. I completely agree that the new parents will soon be masters of dealing with a newborn, as they are really wonderful human beings and will be wonderful in this too! Congratulations!

I cannot wait to see pictures of the little one, but her father is having a hard time finding the camera cord. Perhaps Materfamilias will indulge us? Hint, hint... 

While I wait with an inordinate amount of excitement for any further news or pictures on the little sprout (who, incidentally, is the recipient of this hat), I can show you pictures of the second version of the little sprout's hat:

This one is heading to London tomorrow, now that I've found a card to enclose with it and received my cousin's address. 

In other knitting news, I've started a stealth knitting project for Mr. Ripley's Christmas stocking. The big challenge will be finding time to complete it, as Mr. Ripley is a homebody and is usually around the house when I am. Fortunately, the project is portable and I'm hopeful that I will be able to complete them on transit, etc. Mr. Ripley doesn't read the blog, so I think it's fairly safe to mention my secret knitting, but just in case he surprises me I just went back and took out the name of the actual project.

Speaking of knitting projects, I've cast on the second of the interminable Monkeys. And speaking of Christmas knitting, I bought some Malabrigo worsted in Olive to knit some items for my cousin (mother of Hadley of the orange hat pictured above), who is the recipient of Christmas largesse this year. I'll post a picture once I pick it up from the LYS- it's waiting to be wound. 

Two years ago, my family decided that we'd continue to buy for all the children in the family, but now we draw names, so that everyone only has to buy for one adult. It works really well for us. How does your family handle the holiday shopping? Do you buy for everyone? A select person? Only your immediate family? I'm always interested in finding out how other people handle the Christmas season, which can be so amazing and so commercial all at the same time.